The Senior Project is the Theatre
major’s equivalency of a
Music major’s Senior Recital, the Art major’s
Senior Show, or an honors project
for the University Scholars Program.It
is modeled after the practice of some undergraduate
insti­tutions requiring an
undergraduate thesis, in which the
graduating student is man­dated to illustrate a capacity for
independent
scholarship, coherent argumentation, and clear communication.

The Senior Project affords you the
opportunity to summarize
your undergraduate training and to make a statement of your present
status as
an artist.It
allows you to show
yourself and your colleagues not everything you know but what arrests
you now,
and not every­thing you can do but where
your skills are taking you.Ideally,
it should act as a snap­shot of your artistry in this place and
at this time,
one you can figuratively take out and look at as you continue your
development.

An acceptably completed Senior
Project is a graduation requirement
for the Theatre major.

C.3.aCharacteristics.

The nature of the Senior Project is
deliberately flexible,
allowing you room to create and define the opportunity for yourself.It does call for

1)
Theatre Faculty approvalbefore you begin your work,

2)
it is developed in consultation
with a faculty advisor,
and

3)
it needs to be accompanied by an
appropriate record of its
develop­ment.

But beyond those three requirements,
the project should
reflect the following attributes:

The final product is creative in nature rather than
traditional research.

The project occurs
sometime during your Senior year and is to be respected as
the culmination of your undergraduate training.

It anchors itself in acting, directing, design, play writing,
or some combination thereof.

It takes some form of public demonstration, either as a part of
a performance set­ting or as a public display.For instance, a play script requires at least a public
reading; a design project should be part of a production setting or may
be presented as either lec­ture or gallery display.The form of public
demonstration is of your creation as ap­proved by your project
advisor.

Your effort is expected to
be the independent work of a mature student
artist, devel­oped and presented with minimal
influence from outside agents.If
you work with others, you need to take care to make visible your distinctive contribution.The product should reflect
a coherent artistic vision, an understanding of the given artistic
limitations, and a noticeable awareness of audience
sensitivities.

Your work is to be of substantial merit, reflecting an
informed sensitivity and philosophy.Principally this means that you need to approach the
project seriously and to give it your best efforts.It’s not something to be put off until the last
minute.

To assist you in this process
and to assure your success, you need to

1)select
an advisor from the
Theatre staff.

2)Develop
your project with this
person before you pursue plans to
accomplish it; your advisor can enlarge on the characteristics and
limitations
of your project before you invest serious time on it.